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Whitney Howard Lesse is Ruth's younger brother. A huge Trekkie (and sci-fi fan in general), he's well at home in any number of fictional universes but barely functional in the real world. On the plus side, at some point in the last couple of years he's learned how to dress himself, so... there's that.

Joe and Danny's next-door neighbor during their sophomore year at IU, Howard quickly became the object of Joe's torments, the bullied geek for the bullying jock. However, all that came to an end when Howard's highly protective (and extremely violent) sister, Ruth, entered the scene. After receiving a beatdown from the older Lesse, Joe wisely elected to dial back his abuses, and he and Howard became something like tentative friends.

Ruth's death in a car crash drove a wedge between Howard and Danny, who was largely responsible for the incident. Without his sister's influence, Howard became even more introverted, and eventually left the IU dorms entirely to move in with Ruth's old housemates, Ron and Carly. His new living situation did not treat him much better, and Howard wound up as a punching bag for Ron in particular.

In the final Roomies! storyline, Danny finally made amends with Howard by slugging Ron, Ruth-style. The two later rented a house with Joe and Danny's girlfriend, Billie.

During the Martian invasion of Earth, Howard joined Danny in attacking the Martian mothership with Joe and Rachel after accidentally stowing away aboard Ultra Car. His role in the resulting battle seems to have been largely ornamental.

Howard is another character that dates back to before the inception of Roomies!, featuring in several Ultra Car stories under the name of "Mike". (He was renamed in deference to Mike Warner.) He is in fact one of the oldest characters, created around the same time as Joe and Danny. Like many Ultra Car-era characters, he was based on one of David Willis's real-life friends. Source: It's Walky re-post comments

Howard is Ruth's 16-year-old[1] brother, a prolific texter and a rabid fan of HBO's Game of Thrones. He currently lives with their grandfather in Carmel, Indiana, and first appeared during the Freshman Family Weekend arc.

Unlike Ruth, Howard doesn't seem to carry any deep-seated trauma over the untimely death of their parents, and is somewhat dismissive of his sister's feelings on the matter.

Despite his occasionally irritating personality, Ruth is highly protective of her brother, and tries to shield him from her own battles with alcoholism and depression.